Giants force Game 6 behind Zito mastery

For Grant Brisbee of McCovey Chronicles, it was almost miraculous:

Zito’s tremendous performance on the mound and his perfectly placed RBI bunt single led the Giants to victory; they’ll have to win twice more, but Brisbee sees reason for optimism:

3. Barry Zito pitches exceptionally well.

1. Barry Zito pitches decently and the Cardinals hit a lot of baseballs to the wrong spot and Zito’s defense gives him some help.

Pandamonium! Well, maybe if they’d been in San Francisco. Considering the Cardinals had been losing by four runs since the fourth inning, there were probably just a bunch of glum fans getting more glum while Sandoval rounded the bases to make the score 5-0.

Boggs did get out of the inning with no more damage, so the Cards have six outs to make up five runs. It’s not looking too good for the home team, which is probably ticketed for the long trip to California.

Yep. Runner, singular. Barry Zito is pitching a game that is so good, it’s worth pointing out that he allowed a runner in the seventh inning. Daniel Descalso flipped a ball out to right field with two outs, and it fell just in front of Hunter Pence. That qualified as a Cardinals rally against Zito in Game 5.

Goodness. That was unexpected.

Barry Zito has held the Cardinals scoreless through five innings, dancing in and out of jams. He’s probably been a little lucky, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t pitching well -- he has the Cardinals off-balance like no other Giants pitcher has this NLCS.

But he’s needed a little help from his defense in the bottom of the fifth. With no one out, Pete Kozma blooped a ball down the right field line. Hunter Pence chased after it as if his thorax was on fire, and he caught it with one of his feelers.

The graph in question:

Toward the end of the season, Barry Zito wasn’t giving up fewer runs, but he was pitching better -- allowing fewer walks, and getting more swing-throughs. What the graph purports to show is that his curveball was getting better and better as the season went along. When it slurves, Zito can’t control it. But when it’s his normal 12-to-6 (or 11-to-5, really) curve, he commands it better.